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Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Pizza Crust

I have a huge fear of making bread of any type. I have watched countless videos on foodnetwork and yet it always felt like so much work and I hated the idea I would make it and it would suck. I have a friend here in Seattle who used to make pizza for us when I was in high school. Kosta went on to open his own restaurant and happens to still make very delicious pizza and many other dishes at Varlamos pizzeria. I asked if he would show me just how to make a crust and he was generous enough to walk me through it. We made a dough and set it aside to rise while we chatted about our lives and old high school stories. I took that dough home and he gave me toppings for it so I could create a pizza for me and my family.

I made my stock sauce that I often make for pasta and made pepperoni for the kids. I added a little onion on the second half and arugula for the second pie. The dough we made allowed me to make 4 medium size pies. I like my crust thin so I was able to get 4 easily.

The recipe he gave me is for a basic Italian crust. It is not his restaurants recipe but damn good. The best things I learned from this experience is that crust is quite easy to make. I also learned that if you treat it with love it will taste wonderful and have great texture. I've made this for a few of my family members and they all said I make the best pizza they have ever had.

The second time I made it my mom said she would like the sauce to have more garlic so I doubled it and it was even better. Kosta taught me to not be afraid and just play with it. He also said I can let the dough rise in the fridge and I have done that both times. I am no longer afraid of pizza and wanted to share my story with you all. Try it and let me know what you think.

In a large bowl add 4 cups of flour, add yeast, sugar and salt and mix around. Pour in hot water and olive oil. mix together with hands until it all comes together. Add more flour to your counter and place dough on top. You will have to kneed dough and add flour until it is no longer sticky. Place in a bowl that has light coating of olive oil. Let it rise for a few hours or overnight.

Pre heat oven to 450 degrees

Once is is all puffed up take dough out and cut into 4 pieces. I use four pieces because I like crust to be thin. lightly oil a pan and slowly start to stretch out the dough and push onto a pan until you get desired thickness. add sauce but don't over do it or it gets to soggy. Then add cheese and whatever toppings you enjoy. Bake at 450 for about 15 minutes. start with 10 and check it.

I didn't add my sauce recipe because you can add whatever sauce you enjoy. You can even use jar sauce if you want. If you choose to add arugula and I add it after is baked. I toss it with tiny bit of olive oil and add as much or little as you want.

Thank you Kosta for being so wonderful. I look forward to exploring even more with dough.

8 comments:

I wonder if you can help me. I had attempted to make a loaf of bread, not once but twice. I used dry active yeast as the recipe called for it. Twice the bread didn't rise. It was like the dried dough crafts that I used to do back in Kindergarden where we would decorate the finished product and hang it up. The reason why I am asking this is because I am interested in making this pizza and I would like to make sure that I can have success with this recipe and other recipes in the future that call for the addition of yeast.

I would just like to say that I and my sister and aunt are eating the pizza as I am typing this response and we all LOVE it! The bread rose perfectly ( I used Rapid Rise) and it is something that I will definitely cook again!